


Dark Forces

by Entropy House (AnonEhouse)



Category: Drake's Venture (1980), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2012-10-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 01:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/Entropy%20House
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Force is with Thomas Doughty. And a good thing, too.</p><p>(note: while no m/m occurs, it's fairly strongly hinted for the future, after the story)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Forces

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

Thomas Doughty prayed for his monarch, his friends, and his country. There was nothing else to do but make his peace with God and accept his fate with equanimity. He had no desire to live in this savage country, and his friend had offered no other option. At least he could go to his maker with a clean heart and a calm assurance that the Afterlife awaited.

He knelt on the block and composed his soul. He saw the shadow of the bladesman move and silently prayed for forgiveness for Francis Drake.

"There is a disturbance in the Force!" A man's voice, loud and rasping, and -- mechanical, like a clockwork mechanism gone wrong -- came from an impossible place, up in the air above the block. The shadow jerked, and the blade buried itself in the block next to Thomas's head. Startled he looked up and saw a figure clad in black robes, helmeted in shining smooth ebon metal that hid his entire face. Thomas could not fathom how the man could breathe. Then again, as he was floating and translucent as shallow sea water, this couldn't be a man. No one spoke, no doubt for fear. Thomas had nothing left to fear, and he was curious.

"Are you an angel or a demon, sir?" Thomas asked politely, while crossing himself. The apparition had no wings, but then, neither did he have horns. He _might_ have had a tail under the robes.

The stranger's helmet vanished, revealing what seemed to be the face of an ordinary man, not old, and not young, his hair faded gold and his eyes faded blue. His voice was human now, sad and weary. "Neither. I was once a man. I made many errors." He waved at the blade, which lifted itself up and spun like the wheel of a cart in mid-air. His eyes turned to Francis Drake. "I killed my best friend." His hand clenched at nothing, and Drake rose into the air, feet dangling, hands about his throat and eyes wild as horrible choking noises came from him. "As you were about to do."

Thomas leaped to his feet as everyone else stared in horror. "Please, Lord, spare my friend! He only sought to serve his Queen!"

"He seeks power and wealth at the price of love." The cool blue eyes looked at Thomas, looked into him. "It is a false coin, payment of the Dark Side. The Force brought me here to set matters right."

Drake was turning purple.

Thomas knelt below the apparition. "Can you commit murder in the name of justice? I beg of you!" For himself, Thomas had not cried, but for Drake, he wept. "Let him live, for the love I bear him, I beg of you, let Francis live!"

Drake tumbled to the sandy beach, gasping for air. The blade shot like a levinbolt to the ground beside him, buried hilt deep.

The apparition smiled at Thomas. "Do you not deserve life also?"

Doughty shook his head. "It doesn't matter what I deserve. If I live, there will be dissent and dissatisfaction. So far from home, we could not survive that." It had taken some argument, but he had bowed to Drake's reasoning. Better one man should die than all of them.

The apparition laughed. "The Force is strong within you, Thomas, strong for the good! Come with me!" He stretched out his hand, and suddenly Doughty could sense that this man was indeed an angel, or at least a saint, one purified of all sins. He touched the cool fingers, and felt himself lifting to float beside the man in black. "I will take you to a time that needs men like you."

"But what of my friends?"

"Watch." The angel waved his hand again. Drake got up as if nothing had happened and picked up a half-husked cocoa nut from the sand. He displayed it, dangling from its fibrous husk, to the assembly who had eyes only for him, as if Doughty and the angel had never been. Drake declared Thomas Doughty dead. Then he began a speech persuading his men to unity, obedience, love, and regard of their voyage. "He speaks well," the angel said as he took Thomas in his arms. "Demagogues often do."

"Will Francis be all right?" Doughty said wistfully as the sky turned black and starry all around, even under their feet. They were moving more swiftly than the Pelican, he felt, but he didn't know how he knew it.

"He will have all he sought, wealth and fame and accomplishment. Whether that makes him content will be up to him." The angel smiled down at Doughty. "I shall introduce you to my son, Luke. He's a good man, but he's far too alone these days, since his last lover left him." The angel laughed. "You're far prettier than Han Solo."

Doughty didn't quite understand, but then, angels were inscrutable. Luke was a good Christian name. He sensed they would become very good friends indeed. He laughed and flung out his arms to the heavens.


End file.
